Pronghorn Cape Slippage

[elkhuntrr75]

I was needing some advice. I received a call from my taxidermist this evening informing me that the pronghorn’s cape that I was going to have him mount was slipping and not salvageable.

This is the third pronghorn that he has done for me in the last 5 years. The previous 2 mounts he did for me turned out good. I am very aware that pronghorn capes are tough but hair loss and slippage are 2 different things.

Both my taxidermist and I live in Oklahoma. He has a large shop that employs 3-4 employees and has done a lot of African and western big game mounts.

The pronghorn was shot the last week of October in Montana. I believe that it was handled correctly and delivered in good shape. The cape was:

• caped it out 2 hours after it was harvested. It was dressed out all the way to the skull but the skull wasn’t fleshed out and ears and lips were not turned out.

• The cape was clean, I handled the cape gently, wrapped up, put in a trash bag dry and over ice immediately.

•the cape/head was delivered to the taxidermist 24 hours after it was harvested. It was dry, cool, still very fresh and in my opinion in perfect shape.

I have paid a $300 deposit. The taxidermist will refund $250 and give me back the skull cap and horns (he claims that he has an hour of work in it so far) or he will sell me a cape and mount it for $100 to $150 more than he was going to charge me before the slippage. The difference price is in the cape size. Either a 15” or 18” diameter neck cape.

Our phone call was civil. He hasn’t admitted any fault and all I did was ask a lot of questions to try and figure out what happened. He stated that it was pretty normal and just happens sometimes. I don’t know enough about taxidermy to know if he is bullshitting me or not.

He said that he was salting the cape and that’s when it slipped. I assume that he finished fleshing/skinning the cape before freezing and he was salting the hides 2 months later before sending a batch to the tannery. Does that sound like an acceptable method for prepping capes to be tanned? 2 months seems like a long time. Should he of salted the hide 2 months ago before freezing?

Are there any taxidermist on here that would give me their 2 cents worth? The antelope that far north are pretty big bodied and I think that a larger cape is the true representation of this trophy. What do you guys think is the correct resolution? I don’t want to cheat the guy but I don’t want to pay extra for his mistake either.

 

[Marble]

In my expertise, which I am not btw. You either salt a hide or you freeze it. Not both, meaning you don't put salt on it and then freeze. But it's normal to remove a cape, do final fleshing and salt it, let it dry and then send off to tan.

When wrapping up a cape for freeze, the head goes in last. If wrapped improperly it can take days to cool and freeze which could ruin the cape.

What he told you on price seems in line what it should be.

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[KeatonMullenix]

Redacted. Meant to PM.

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[Northpark]

I’m no expert but cape slippage does happen. I had some slip on an axis deer that went was shot and had the cape in a freezer within an hour. The reason was that the head and neck were in the center of the rest of the cape and therefor may have taken hours to cool down let alone freeze.

 

[Marble]

I’m no expert but cape slippage does happen. I had some slip on an axis deer that went was shot and had the cape in a freezer within an hour. The reason was that the head and neck were in the center of the rest of the cape and therefor may have taken hours to cool down let alone freeze.

This is what I was getting at above. When you roll up a hide, the head goes in last and should be mostly exposed. A few people have said to make sure the nose is covered so it doesn't get freezer burnt,some say do t worry. I don't know what the best practice is.

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[hobbes]

When I had a taxidermy shop, I typically froze every cape that came in first because timing rarely worked out for me to flesh that day. Most came in the way you mentioned and I only needed to skin the head and a short portion of neck before freezing. I rolled the cape (face/ears inside roll), tagged, and froze. (These were all deer capes) I capped the skull, tagged the horns and stored.

When fleshing day came around, I'd lay out what I thought I would have time for the evening before fleshing. The next day the face would still be frozen some usually. I'd flesh the cape first on a beam then flesh and turn face and ears. A thorough salting followed and cape turned right side out and elevated to drain. I would apply fresh salt the next day. The day after that I would shake salt out and put it in the pickle (acid bath).

It is here that through the years I lost a cape or two because the damn Ph climbed too high (my fault) and hair started to slip as soon as I started working with it. I can recall two customers and one of my own. I am replaced at no cost and offered to not charge anything more than the be deposit. I think in both cases they paid for the mount anyway. I think this is one of the most likely times for a taxidermist to cause the problem.

I also had hair slip on a few occasions that was not my fault but the way the cape had been handled. I tried to note those things up front and often pointed them out to the customer so they knew that it was a possibility. It's crazy the stench that some folks would show up with and think that I could fix.

 

[Northpark]

This is what I was getting at above. When you roll up a hide, the head goes in last and should be mostly exposed. A few people have said to make sure the nose is covered so it doesn't get freezer burnt,some say do t worry. I don't know what the best practice is.

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Ya I’m not sure either because I’ve had others be just fine after worse handling. Maybe slippage is something that can just happen every so often because of something very small like a spot of blood or meat or whatever in the wrong spot.

 

[Trial153]

Two things come to mind. First is that the best practice is to cape the entire thing right off the head. It doesn’t take much more time, learn to do it and turn the lips, nose Ect while your at it.


Secondly I don’t see where me there is much is any upside for your taxidermist to be screwing you out of cape. The prices he quoted you for a replacement sure as hell aren’t going to have much of any margin in it for him and he would have been better off from a time perspective to use your cape…as I am sure he would have if it was usable.

 

[Marble]

Two things come to mind. First is that the best practice is to cape the entire thing right off the head. It doesn’t take much more time, learn to do it and turn the lips, nose Ect while your at it.


Secondly I don’t see where me there is much is any upside for your taxidermist to be screwing you out of cape. The prices he quoted you for a replacement sure as hell aren’t going to have much of any margin in it for him and he would have been better off from a time perspective to use your cape…as I am sure he would have if it was usable.

This is true. There's not much in it extra for him. The cape costs a tax $50-$100 if he buys it,then the time to prep it, then the cost of tanning. So $150 is pretty standard.

My buddy down the street is a taxidermist and offered $50 for mature bucks and $100 for Bulls. That's just the cape, with the head not fleshed.

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[Extrapale]

My taxi has instructed me not to touch pronghorn or bighorn capes without gloves. Both are easily susceptible to slipping. The main cause is bacteria from your hands getting on the cape and growing before its cooled out.

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